The Power of Worship
Why worship is not a Sunday activity but a way of ordering the whole of life around the worth of God.
Worship is the proper response of a creature to the Creator. The Psalms are full of it—not as a ritual, but as the overflow of a heart that has seen God. "Bless the Lord, O my soul," David cries, summoning his own inmost being to join the praise.
The power of worship is that it reorders our loves. We become like what we worship. When we worship the living God, we are conformed to His character—more patient, more just, more merciful. When we worship lesser things, we are diminished by them.
Worship is also warfare. The Psalms often praise God in the face of enemies and chaos, declaring that God is King even when the world seems otherwise. To worship is to insist that the truth about God is more real than the trouble around us.
Finally, worship is for all of life. Psalm 150 calls every instrument and every breathing creature to praise. Worship is not a segment of the week; it is the soundtrack of a life that has seen the glory of God and cannot stay silent.
Related Psalms
Psalm 150
“Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.”
Psalm 150 is the thunderous doxology that closes the Psalter.
Read morePsalm 100
“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.”
A universal call to joyful worship; the Lord is good, His mercy everlasting.
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